Another post, another comment from me on how I never post. It’s been a long time since I felt inspired to publish anything, but life changes are afoot. 

As I write this, I’m sitting at a coffee shop, listening to Cocteau Twins, and watching a palm tree sway in the wind against a gray and wet backdrop that is currently the Los Angeles sky. The weather has brought all of my emotions to the surface, as rainy days often do. I leave Los Angeles at the end of this month – my plan is to give up my apartment, leaving my belongings (and sometimes Klaus) in Ohio while I work remotely and travel over the next nine months. Exciting, I know! I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do this for myself. However, on this rainy afternoon, I just can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness for the life I am leaving. 

When I decided to leave LA back in September I was fresh off a vacation to a Wyoming dude ranch where I was riding horses all day and had little to no service. This was the first vacation I had taken for myself in a little over a year and the first time that I had truly been off the grid since ~maybe~ before I had a smartphone. My first step off the plane back at Burbank Airport left me overwhelmed and recognizing a need for change. I have no traditional ties to LA – my company is based in Boston, MA, I work remotely and travel often for meetings, my siblings are scattered across the United States, and my parents and grandparents remain back in Ohio. I began floating the idea to a friend of moving back temporarily to save money and quietly determine where to go next. 

Since that first conversation, which was full of anticipation and reassurance that this could be good for me, I’ve fallen back in love with Los Angeles and who I am in this city. I’ve thrown myself back into dancing after a 10 year hiatus  (thank you, Claire). I’ve begun scheduling my life around my needs rather than my employer’s needs. I’ve stopped saying yes to hangouts for the sake of being social. I felt an intentionality return to my day to day, and while I still fall back into old habits, I found myself slowly learning new things about myself and the city around me. These past few months, I’ve found myself more open to the possibilities a day to day brings. I’ve begun to rely on my friends more for large life tasks and day to day help. There has been a recognition that perhaps my outlook and my attitude towards what my life “should” look like is the real reason I have not been able to enjoy my day to day as thoroughly. The realization has opened me up to accepting new ideas, new connections, and new possibilities in my own daily life, so much so that I feel I do not need a dramatic change in location. 

But, with all of that said… I’m still leaving! The realizations over the past six months have also reminded me how I am my best self when I am traveling to new places, meeting new people and existing in new spaces. Instead of sulking in one place for the rest of the year, if my latest itinerary goes according to plan, I will have visited 7 countries and 11 cities. It appears that this space will now become a travel blog for the foreseeable future, with highlights to come from…

• Washington, D.C. 
• Mexico City, Mexico 
• Seattle, Washington
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• New York, New York 
• Nashville, Tennessee 
• Stockholm, Sweden 
• Copenhagen, Denmark 
• Berlin, Germany 
• Paris, France 
• Lisbon, Portugal 

As I finish editing this post 3 days after I started it, I cannot help but feel immense adoration for the people in my life right now. It is a beautiful feeling to feel so loved by the people in this city that I fear what comes next, what life looks like without that daily reassurance of support. I know from experience that this love and support does not disappear, but rather transforms with distance. This is what is going to carry me through the next few weeks of “see you later” ‘s and goodbyes. 

I do not know who I will be or where I will end up once my travels are finished, but it’s so beautiful knowing that the remote support group I’ve been cultivating since I first left Ohio all of those years ago will only grow as I explore these new places. Write to me, as I plan to write to you all. 

Yours always,

Holly